n. Learning; instruction in letters.n. The use of letters for the promulgation of thought or knowledge; the communication of facts, ideas, or emotions by means of books or other modes of publication; literary work or production: as, the profession of literature.n. Recorded thought or knowledge; the aggregate of books and other publications, in either an unlimited or a limited sense; the collective body of literary productions in general, or within a particular sphere, period, country, language, etc.: as, the literature of a science, art, or profession; Greek, Roman, or Elizabethan literature.n. In a restricted sense, the class of writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry, romance, history, biography, and essays, in contradistinction to scientific works, or those written expressly to impart knowledge.n. Synonyms Literature, Learning, Scholarship, Erudition, Lore. Literature, the more polished or artistic class of written compositions, or the critical knowledge or appreciation of them; learning, large knowledge acquired by study, especially in the literature, history, or the like, of the past; scholarship, learning viewed as the possession of a professional or amateur scholar or student; erudition, scholastic or the more recondite sort of knowledge obtained by profound research; lore, a rather poetic word for erudition, often in a special department: as, versed in the lore of magic.n. Specifically. In scientific usage, the body of monographs, original papers, etc., dealing with a particular topic: as, the literature of the scale-insects and mealy bugs; the literature of the reaction experiment.n. Printed matter of any kind intended for circulation, as the circulars and pamphlets of a political party, of an insurance company, or of a quack advertiser.